Defense Enchantments

manipulos

I'm trying to figure out what defense enchantments to rank up to rank 12 (eventually) for my tactician gear/loadout. Right now I have all Rank 8 Black Ice on my character, and my dancing shield has 3 Rank 12 bondings and 3 Rank 9 Black ice on his personalized jewelcrafted recovery belts. When my bondings proc I'm at almost 84% damage resistance. Also, my guild boon is either 3k or 4k defense, can't remember. I'm thinking about switching to Draconic enchantments on my character's gear to get more hit points, because I'm already over 80% DR and I have a lot of room to improve.

On a related note, how does the Energon 5% hit point boost work? Is it a bonus to base hit points or all hit points? That would be a nice boost if it's for all hit points, and that companion is really cheap for epic on the AH right now at around 100K AD.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Is there a calculator out there somewhere for tinkering with gear and enchants for your character and companion? That would be sweet!

mebengalsfan

If you are after HP get the chest plate from Throne as it provides 50k HP vs the 25k most others provide.

sadus671

manipulos said:

I'm trying to figure out what defense enchantments to rank up to rank 12 (eventually) for my tactician gear/loadout. Right now I have all Rank 8 Black Ice on my character, and my dancing shield has 3 Rank 12 bondings and 3 Rank 9 Black ice on his personalized jewelcrafted recovery belts. When my bondings proc I'm at almost 84% damage resistance. Also, my guild boon is either 3k or 4k defense, can't remember. I'm thinking about switching to Draconic enchantments on my character's gear to get more hit points, because I'm already over 80% DR and I have a lot of room to improve.

On a related note, how does the Energon 5% hit point boost work? Is it a bonus to base hit points or all hit points? That would be a nice boost if it's for all hit points, and that companion is really cheap for epic on the AH right now at around 100K AD.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Is there a calculator out there somewhere for tinkering with gear and enchants for your character and companion? That would be sweet!

My personal favorite is Gigantic - 920 HP, 460 Deflection, 230 Defense. Draconic is also a viable option if you prefer the extra lifesteal.. but I think you are better off getting that from bondings and also Insignia's are a good source for extra Lifesteal. (I've personally favor Deflection... as you can't and shouldn't have your up shield at all times... so I like having the % chance for extra mitigation.... Just use Fighters Recovery when you are in group... and when you are solo... switch your guild boon to Lifesteal.

Guardian Fighters don't need as many Hit Points as OP's... since we have our shield + we don't have their Power mechanic.

For Bondings I would recommend sticking with Black Ice, as they are good mix of Defense, Deflection, and Life Steal. You are getting plenty of Defense from your 3 Bonding Stones... so no sense using Azures. Also at rank 12 Black Ice you are getting 920 total stats vs 700 with an Azure. (That's an extra 660 stat points after the bonding multiplier.. per enchant)

Energon 5% is off your total hps (I don't use it... so maybe someone can confirm). I don't use it... because again... GF's are not OP's and we don't need as large of Hit Point pools... since we don't gain power through HPs, don't have Aura of Courage (Unless we have an OP in our group... which is less likely.. since you are tanking), and we have double mitigation via our Shield. I might suggest a Rust Monster (Especially when using Knights Valor) or Sprite for more % action point gain over it.

There is a calculator that you can use. I'll PM you the link.

sadus671

mebengalsfan#9264 said:

If you are after HP get the chest plate from Throne as it provides 50k HP vs the 25k most others provide.

I also endorse this move. Single best source of HP's. Given you are already using a Dancing Shield, you are not light on Defense Rating.. so you aren't missing the stats from other chest armor.

With DeepKnight's Brigandine you will have a hard time not being 150k+ Hit Points.

manipulos

You guys rock thank you!

I like the way you think Sadus, I don't keep my shield up my as it is so I'll check out the Gigantic enchants. I find in the dungeons I'm running, even CN, I rarely put my shield up unless it's a big hit coming or CC or I just want to get some aggravating strikes to make sure I have aggro. I do like lifesteal, I think I'm around 14-15% with bondings up, which is nice and I would actually like to get some more. I currently run with all blue insignias because the purple ones are just insanely expensive on the AH. I suspect that's because of the item level changes, because a few months ago when I first looked at them they were much cheaper.

As far as enchantments go I always like to use multi-stat, especially the 3 stat if I can make it work with my build.

I looked at the chest piece with 50k HP but it seemed like I would lose too many stats for the hit points gained. Do you guys use this chest piece? Besides, I literally never get the special gear drops except that mask from Shores of Tuern. No joke I literally have 0 of the special gear drops except that mask, which I have 4 or 5 of LOL.

I definitely need to iron out my tanking companions though. I do want to get a rust monster but the cheapest I've seen on the AH lately is just under 700K for purple. I'm currently running with (all purple) Dancing Shield, Sylph and Dire Wolf because I bought those packs, Lillend because I got it from winter event years ago, and a Sellsword that I was attempting to gear up for dps loadout but gave up for the time being. I like the Sylph but the Dire Wolf, Lillend, and Sellsword should probably all be replaced. Any suggestions along with the rust monster? Some that looked cool to me but not sure on viability: Lion, Chicken (how much does this even proc at high ilvl?), Dread Warrior (don't usually have trouble with threat though), Death Slaad (is the damage pathetic?).

Part of me thinks I should just get dps companions to fill those 3 spots since I'm already close to the point that I could (maybe even should) use a conqueror loadout for most dungeons. I'm tanking just fine with what I have and the three I'm looking to replace aren't benefiting me much at all.

sadus671

The Death Slaad is good.

As a GF you have a threat modifier, so the damage in a way is not that important. I think of it as a fire and forget type of mechanic... you get it running... then continue to build threat even though you aren't focused on it.

The DoT is just good for keeping threat on trash or high movement bosses (Like Drufi)... on one of my Tac Loadouts I feated into Jagged Blades for that reason.


If you have a low Crit %, then an Owl Bear Cub is also good little boost to DPS. Especially Enforced Threat for example....

I might suggest for your Tac Loadout:

Active - Dancing Shield

Comp #1 - Rust Monster
Comp #2 - Sylph
Comp #3 - Death Slaad
Comp #4 - Owl Cub or One of the Sprites for the Action Boost Gain

If you wanted to be ultra defensive.. you could maybe use Phase Spider for 15% Combat Advantage Damage Reduction or Pseudodragon for Guard Stamina Regen.

kemi1984

On my tank lodout I use:

Dancing Shield
Rust Monster
Chicken
Energon
Sellsword - I'm lazy and don't putt his one off from my DPS setup

Sylph is a good choice IMO since the control resist of 50% is never a bad idea. Need to finally grab it on a pack sale, probably at the end of the year with 50% off.

As for the Chicken it has nice debuff active ability and it proc's each time you take this big hit. As far as I'm aware it doesn't have an ICD. And if it has one, it's really short because I'm sure I saw proc after proc when I solo tanked Storvald back in the MSVA farming days.

Energon will take your actual HP pool and add 5% to it. So no, it's not your base HP.
The more HP you have, the more you will gain from this little spooky looking fella.

I do like to have a large HP pool, going into the dungeon I can easily have 250k.
Some may say it's excessive but I thought about it and I do not need any other stats to polish my build so I went for the HP.

Getting the DeepKnight's Brigandine was a pain in the HAMSTER, but ultimately it's worth it.
I've slaughtered legions of Mindfliers and their minions but finally got the freaking thing !

stark760

I like Black ice 12's on my companion, maybe 1 draconic 12 on 1 offense slot so the armor pen the companion is higher. That allowed me switch from armor pen boon from guild to guarantee 60%, to power. On myself, I go mainly black ice 12 in offense, and draconic 12's on def, maybe 1 black ice. I like the black ice's because they have power and defense as main(460), and the 230 splits focus on a GF's needs IMO, mainly on offense no armor pen, and on def, no HP(which the companion won't proc). But the draconic 12's offer 1800 hp, 230 def, 230 lifesteal. I started going away from Con because only 1k HP per point and the AP gain I can make up for. When companion procs hit 85% damage resist, 22% lifesteal, recov 14k(ITF 7.6 sec cooldown). Points on companion are huge, when you have bondings 12. The 720 I get from 3 black ice 12's on companion, when proc'd 2052, over 5%.

boromir

I run straight black ice across the board on both toon and companion. The reason is two fold. First, it gives the most raw defensive stats. Second, I run assassin's covenant.

So....more power and more defensive stats that are all useful. An extra 5% lifesteal and deflect from companion is much better than more defense on top of my defense.

The downside is that I'm hurting for HP at 145k. My build is dps hybrid, so I didn't stack CON in either my roll or attribute point allocation. But that's ok because VIP and food helps. If it's not ok with you, then swap for draconics until your HP is more comfortable/suitable to your liking.

manipulos

You all make some really good points, making this harder for me to decide what to focus on!

manipulos

boromir#3940 said:

I run straight black ice across the board on both toon and companion. The reason is two fold. First, it gives the most raw defensive stats. Second, I run assassin's covenant.



So....more power and more defensive stats that are all useful. An extra 5% lifesteal and deflect from companion is much better than more defense on top of my defense.



The downside is that I'm hurting for HP at 145k. My build is dps hybrid, so I didn't stack CON in either my roll or attribute point allocation. But that's ok because VIP and food helps. If it's not ok with you, then swap for draconics until your HP is more comfortable/suitable to your liking.

I looked at Assassin's Covenant but I didn't quite get it, it doesn't add any stats just redistributes them right? Why wouldn't I just get the stats I want in the first place and use a difference bonus that actually adds something? Maybe I'm missing something here though...

As for the hit points I'm a little bit lower than you right now and I would like more so I'm with you there.

mitty

@manipulos Assassin's Covenant allows dps classes to eke out an offensive stat increase (Power) from defensive enchant slots. So it's redistributing some defensive stats to offensive stats, which could not be accomplished otherwise, since you can't stack power in defensive slots.

santralafax

Assassin's Covenant is great if you are attempting to improve your DPS, as Mitty said. But if you are literally trying to improve Defense, skip it.

kydavi

For some people it becomes cost analysis; azures, radiants, and silvers are plentiful and comparatively cheap to buy/upgrade, while black ice, gigantic, demonic, or draconic are considerably more expensive and/or time consuming to upgrade.

Determine the stat you want to push and then figure out the most cost effective way to achieve it.

manipulos

kydavi#1678 said:

For some people it becomes cost analysis; azures, radiants, and silvers are plentiful and comparatively cheap to buy/upgrade, while black ice, gigantic, demonic, or draconic are considerably more expensive and/or time consuming to upgrade.

Determine the stat you want to push and then figure out the most cost effective way to achieve it.

I'm not worried about that part of it, with quartermasters bags and waiting for double refinement the only thing that costs me is marks of potency and pres wards, which are the same no matter what enchant I'm upgrading.